Interview with Fizzy Blood

After a great 2017 featuring the release of their second EP Summer of Luv, the five-man Alternative Rock band known as Fizzy Blood are back on the road touring. We were lucky enough to sit down with them while they are supporting Spring King at The Bodega to discuss their history, their influences and what are their plans going forward. All before they’re back on the road on their headline tour, due to start at the end of February visiting various venues across England and Scotland.

So how did you all come together to form the band?

It started when Paul and Benji were in a band at first, but when that band ran its course Jake joined them as they wanted to start a new band and we all just met at Leeds College of Music. We also had a line-up change, but only once which was good so we got it out the way pretty swiftly and we just got our heads down and cracked on basically.

How did you guys come up with the name Fizzy Blood?

We basically stole it from Jamie Lenman. When we started the band Jamie Lenman who’s a cult hero of ours, was in a band called Reuben and had just released a single called Fizzy Blood and it came on the radio while we were discussing band names and Ben suggested Fizzy Blood and we were just like cool, and that was it. I wish it was more glamourous.

Who have been your influences? Who would you say has most affected your sound?

It varies really, when we first started we wanted to be a rock band and we all had similar influences like Queen of the Stone Age, Waves, Weezer that sort of thing. Then we kind of changed and got into RnB a little bit more and more psychedelic stuff and just everything really. All the different stuff you listen to does have an influence even if you don’t consciously recognise it. We would never say we sound like such and such but they can have had an influence somewhere down the line. So I guess the answer is everybody and I think it’s the same for everybody.

You’ve been pretty busy recently obviously with releasing Summer of Luv in September last year, and now supporting Spring King before going on your own tour. Would you say as a band you prefer playing live and being on tour or being in the studio?

It’s tricky because playing live is always a lot of fun but touring gets rough it hasn’t been that long this time around but because it’s been all down south. The same thing happens in the studio like when Jake as a drummer, the first thing he does in the studio is track the drums and whenever we start in the studio Jake’s not enjoying himself because the pressure’s on to get this done as quick as possible so we’ve got time for everything else. Then when Jake’s done and all that stress and pressure’s gone out the window, he’s happy for a day then he has to sit around whilst we fiddle around with pedals and other stuff. This recording experience was the best for us we worked with a guy called Alex Newport who’s worked with a load of our favourite bands and it was just great. We spent ten days in Brighton including pre-production and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences we’ve had in this band.

With 2 EP’s done already, are there any plans for a full album soon or is the focus on touring at the moment?

We’re going to be releasing some new music over the next two weeks and we’ll announce what the plan is then with that new music. So keep your eyes peeled on social media for the announcements. (As of writing this a new single C.F.O has already been released)

If you had the chance to work with any artist, who would you choose?

Someone like Brian Wilson or Kevin Parker these guys have such a modern legacy behind them. The only problem is they come from a time where ego was much more celebrated and we might get overpowered leaving us a bit creatively unfulfilled. Kevin Parker would be cool just because he seems have this newer school of thought, where he has a producer brain and everything he does is to serve the song.

Finally, if you could have written any song throughout history which one you would pick?

It would have to be The Beach Boys Song God Only Knows or Good Vibrations, just anything by the beach boys really. Bohemian Rhapsody would be one as well, or Close to You by the Carpenters just because that melody is so beautiful